Ephimera's Heart
by Lupa-for-Life
Summary: This is a story about Glorianna Beladonna and the world of Ephimera created by Anne Bishop. I didn't see another place to put this fic since Sebastian wasn't an option. If there is one and i just didnt see it. Please let me know so i can move it.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **This story takes place in the world Ephimera, or _Sebastian_ by Anne Bishop. She owns it all, i just play in her world. My story begins right at the end of that book and before _Belladona. _Literally as soon as i put _Sebastian _down i got up and walked to my computer to slap down the first rough draft that became this story. I was reading through Chapter 25 and 26 when Glorianna Beladonna took down the wizard council and at the end of the scene passed out. My muse then took a sledge hammer and hit me in the head with it. I could hardly finish the book my fingers were itching so bad to get to my keyboard.

Also, I haven't read _Beladonna_ yet so should anyone review, don't ruin anything for me, please! ^_^ Hope you enjoy this! -Lupa

* * *

Glorianna floated through the darkness. Their plan had worked. They, Ephimera and she, had given heart's justice to the dark guides and the entire landscape known as wizard city. She had felt the ache deep in her bones and knew that it had almost killed her. An ache that only deepened when she took the chunk of landscape that city and all its inhabitants belonged to and removed it from the world.

She had been dreadfully weak, but now... she felt nothing. That was a strange feeling in more reasons than one. She could always feeling Ephimera and all the hearts around her. She felt their resonance, ones from both the dark and the light. No heart could hide from Beladonna. But, beyond that, she could not feel her own body, her mind was cloudy and full of cotton. If her eyes were open, it was a darker landscape than she knew of, where the sky had no stars, and the moon never shined.  
_ Is it over? Am I gone?_  
The memory of what happened in Wizard City was as fuzzy as her mind, but she remembered the wizard had raised his hand. She had been moving backwards trying to get to her brother's island when he attempted to use the lightning. Everything was black after that, like pages missing from a book. Did she make it to her brother or did she die at the hands of a wizard, like so many of her kind before her?

She felt deep inside herself for her heart's resonance and through it, all the landscapes in her care. If she could feel them, then everything would be as it should be. The Sanctuary, and the Den, would be safe. Along with Aurora and her mother, and everyone else she was trying to protect. There was a tiny flare. Far away, but still there... and growing fainter. That worried her. Did that mean her life was fading? Was she dying even now? Everything was numb, but if she could still find her heart... then she was not gone. Glorianna called out into the darkness. Searching for another presence that would assure there was more to this place than the nothing. Anything to help anchor her back within the landscapes of Ephimera. She floated in the nothing, in the numb, and her mind was too foggy to try any escape. A tiny trickle of fear tried to seep into her mind. Then came the whispers.

_You have failed. The wizard has destroyed you, and through you, all of Ephimera. You are alone. You are lost._

She closed her heart to the whispers. She would not listen. Even if she as dying, Ephimera and her garden were still protected. She had felt the resonance of her landscapes and knew it was so... and she had felt those whispers before. She would never forget the time in the waterhorse's landscape when the eater of the world had used her own heart against her. Her heart would not listen, this time. Her heart was only hears. The voices tried to eat away at her, whispering that the things she feared the most were all true. That she had no readon to fight for her life. They could whisper all they wanted but she recognized the lies for what they were.

There was a flare of agitation at this sign of certainty and strength. It pulsed around her. Then fear. Then nothing.

Glorianna concentrated on her core, the innermosts of her self, and nurtured the strength inside her that she would need to return to her gardens from... wherever she was. She felt for them, they seemed further away than she had ever felt them, and yet close... so close. She steeled herself for that step, distance meant nothing to Glorianna Belladona. There weren't enough miles to seperate Ephimera's Heart from anywhere. It would take only one step and she would be back in her gardens. She took the step and exhaled. She hadn't left the dark. She was still in the numbness, and she was alone.

Where was she that she could no longer reach her gardens? Had something happened that made her resonance change that she could no longer reach them? Never.  
There was a gleam in the distance. It pricked at her mind, trying to gain entrance into her thoughts. She shut down, unwlling to even listen to the whisperers and their lies. They could only hurt. The feeling persisted, gently, piquing her curiosity. It felt dark, but not cruel. She was not afraid of the dark. She knew how to nurture the dark and the light equally. She felt for the other presence with her heart, knowing no one could hide their heart from her. What she sensed felt both familiar and strange. Like recognizind a dog for a dog, but knowing it wasn't yours. But it was the familiarity that made her open herself. To let the strange in. She thought _Sebastian_. Or a heart like his, since there was nothing that could make Sebastian feel strange to her. She wanted to take a moment to think about what the familiarity was trying explain, to tell her, but she was too numb, and far, far too weak.

The stranger's heart was warm, his mind touched hers and she felt a tingle through her body to chase the numbness away. There was a brief hesitation and then she felt hands, caressing her neck, her back, her thighs. Fingers combed through her silky black hair, teasing her scalp. Warm breath touched her face, then lips. Every touch left her tingling. Every kiss sent fire to burn away the numbness and the cotton in her mind. She tried to moan when the lips traveled down her throat but the nothing ate the sound. She tried to touch the hands, to feel for a face or hair to grip when the lips closed around her nipple, but she couldn't make her limbs move. Frustration would have colored her vision red, if it weren't for all the black. Then she felt the nothing shift and there was warm light behind her closed eyelids, and sheets against her skin. She was in a bed.  
The lips and the hands stopped their caresses and she groaned. Her head was still full of fog, but now it was the fog of lust. Her eyes opened, and she saw him. Eyes the color of blue skys, of the deepest waters. Pale skin that seemed to glow with an inner warmth, like the sun shining out through his features. His hair was cut short and as black as her own. So black it seemed blue in the light from his body. Her eyes scanned down a sculpted chest and feasted an abdomen she wanted to trace with her tongue. His hands lightly grazed down her chest to circle her belly button, before heading back up to her face where he cupped her chin and smiled. His fingertips were still leaving burning trails in their wake, sensations that took her breath away. Then he leaned forward and kissed her. She felt that kiss everywhere. On her skin, in her mind, and in her heart. It filled her, nurturing the power and life inside her inside her. Filling her with his strength, healing her in ways she didn't even realize she needed. She ran her arms around him as the light inside his skin began to dim. He growled softly as she caressed him back and he felt a yearning inside her calling out to him. He felt something in his heart pulse with hers. She must have felt it too for her eyes flew open wide and she looked at him with new sense of realization... and somewhere deep inside, a great need.

As she watched, the eyes she looked into faded. The warmth in her body stayed, but the vision of him blurred around the edges. She tried to stop him from withdrawing, not yet ready to let go of the feeling of closeness. _Wait! _She hadn't felt that closeness since the wizards and the landscapers had tried to lock her away all those years ago. She had been able to walk freely among her landscapes and be with her people but always apart from them. Her eyes struggled to hold on to what her fingers told her was already gone.  
She felt stronger for his touch. The numbness was gone. She would waste no time, she needed to know what had happened before the blackness. She reached out for her landscapes and took that step she needed to return to her sanctuary. 


	2. Chapter 2

Ephimera's Heart Chapter 2.

**A/N: **I had no idea my muse owned a warhammer. But there she stands, with a fire in her eyes that has never scared me into writing two chapters in two days. But here we are... and here i type. I dare not jinx it... -Lupa

* * *

Jared sat up slowly in his bed in the Den. He rubbed the heel of his hands into his eyes roughly, trying to shake the feeling of her. He'd been hunting, like any other night, in the land of dreams. He was searching for a mind that would welcome the kind of fun time only one like him could offer. He had unfurled the power inside him as he lay in his bed, and sought those minds out. When he found her, he would take her to heights of pleasure she had never dreamt of and as she climaxed, he would feed on her emotions and her feelings. Then he would let her go. It was forbidden in the den for an incubus to kill its prey with the power. Jared had never cared for that kind of hunting, but since this law came from the Justice Maker Sebastian, it was one line he never dared cross. The woman he had visited in that dreamscape, her name had escaped him, since he usually never cared to ask, but her icy green eyed had left him wanting. He could still taste her skin on his mouth. He had sensed a need in her that made him burn with power. He never thought twice about funneling that energy into her. Something in his heart had told him to give her anything he could. She had tasted like hope. He couldn't remember if he had seen her around the den before. He carefully pictured her in his mind and tried to place her in any of the landscapes he knew. He felt a fleeting tug, as if she had been there but he he just hadn't seen her. Then there was a tug on his heart as he wondered who, and where she was. He lifted himself from the tangle of his sheets and almost collapsed back into his bed. He felt so weak. He ran his fingers through his black hair and panted softly as the feel of her flesh under his hands pulsed in his memory. He had wanted women before. He blamed it on his partial humanity that the women he hunted could have that effect on him. Even so, he had never woken up from his hunting and wanted to find the woman he had fed on.  
_ Of course you didn't feed on this one, did you Jared?_ He thought to himself. _More like you fed her._  
But what did that mean? He knew she had needed the power. He knew she was fading from Ephimera even when he had pulled her into that dream bed to fuck her and knew that wasn't what she was looking for. He never thought twice as he poured the power that was glowing strangely beneath his skin into her weakening body. If he found her, then that was how it was meant to be. In the land of Ephimera, nothing happened by chance. When the thoughts in his mind began to feel as heavy as his body, Jared rose again from his bed and balanced his shaky legs with will alone. Then he dressed for the day. He wore a bright blue shirt, half unbuttoned and over nothing with a new kind of pants that Finch called "jeans". They had come in from some other landscape and the fit like leather and breathed like cotton. Grinning mischievously at his reflection, he headed downstairs to get some breakfast.

When he crossed the street from the bordello he rented a room at, and Philo's bar, he noticed the sky held far fewer stars than normal, and seemed different in a way he couldn't quite put his fingers on. He sat at a table in the courtyard, before he could think too hard, and looked at the twinkling lights of the Den. It was a carnal carnival. It was a place that made him smile, and feel at home. There were incubi and succubi here, like him, and it was for those faces he searched as he waited to be served. The thin girl he knew as one of Philo's new helpers crossed by his spot to serve omelets to a table of Bull demons. On her way back by, she stopped to take his order of the phallic delights and whatever the house was serving today. As much as he may like to look at tits, he was not a fan of mushrooms and never ordered those. He smiled at her warmly when the bread and cheese reached his table and dove in hungrily.

The girl may have frowned, since he always flirted with the women around him, but he was too weak to care. Though he did look appriciatevly at her behind as she swayed her hips in retreat to the kitchen. By the time he was done eating the stew and bread, he felt enough of his strength return that he wasn't going to collapse at anymoment. He was about to pay for his meal and leave when Teaser sat down across from him.

"Hey-a, Jared," his fellow incubus said, "I hope you aren't about to go inside, because i don't think you want to miss this..." The blond man turned his gaze to the trees across from the bar.

"Miss what?" Thats when Jared noticed the threades of bright orange and purple threading through the permanently night sky of the den. It had been subtle and almost unnoticible before but now, he was certain he was about to watch a sunrise. "Impossible! The Sun doesn't shine in the den," he said softly.

Others were beginning to notice too. Some were afraid, not of the sunlight, as it peeked over the treetops and bathed his skin in a warmth he hadn't felt in ages, but of what it meant and why it was happening.  
Jared admitted he was wondering a lot of the same things. Teaser sighed and turned his gaze back to the other incubus. Jared's eyes still focused on the sunrise, as if seeing one for the very first time. Though for all he knew, maybe he was. There were a lot of dark places in Ephimera. Everyone around him, in the courtyard and in the streets had turned as well to look upon the light. He noticed that everything looked a little dusty in the bright light of the sun... that would need to be fixed. He smiled to himself and raised a hand to let the serving girl know he wanted some bread and ale., then with another gesture, told her to bring a fresh glass to Jared as well.  
"You act like you've never seen the sun before, old friend."  
"Don't patronize me, Teaser. What is happening here?" He sat back down in his chair and looked at the blond man. "In all the years i've lived here, the sun has never risen. Why now?" Teaser looked at him with light shining behind his eyes.

"Because the den is no longer a dark landscape. It has been connected to the light. The Den is now just up the street from Aurora."  
Jared took the tankard the girl set down and took a long pull as he contemplated what exactly that meant. He gagged a little at the taste. He didn't much care for wine or ale either.  
That road that had once led to bridges and open fields full of waterhorses now went to a village? And not just any village, but Aurora? They were now part of the same landscape? "How is that possible?"  
Teaser's eyes turned serious, "Glorianna Belladonna" he popped a piece of bread in his mouth.  
His heart lurched at her name. Everyone knew of Belladonna. How she had created this place and was Sebastians cousin. Sebastian, the Justice Maker... Belladonna the rogue landscaper. Sebastian had told them there was nothing to fear from Belladona. That heart's hope lied within her. And, in fact, he did not hear her name with fear. Though, the thought of seeing the sunrise in a landscape he had always ascociated with a land of forever night did make him think. How could one woman have done that. Alter the face of Ephimera like that?

He allowed himself to remember the face from his dreamscape. The face that had moaned from his touch and the body that had writhed under him as he fed her all the power she had called from him. Eyes so green and hair so black. He thought, _Belladonna_ and his heart lurched again.

Teaser stood suddenly and Jared followed his gaze to the Justice Maker and his woman Lynnea coming down the street, waving triumphantly and gesturing at the sunrise. Teaser rose and headed towards them in greeting but Jared stayed behind in the courtyard. There were many things he didn't need to know about the world. He felt like he needed to fog his mind, to forget about the woman with the green eyes. About the sunrise, about the tugging on his heart.

Jared strolled across the street back into the bordello. He went silently up to his room and shut the door behind him.

He opened his trunk. There were things in here he had purchased in secret from the darkest landscapes. Things that would make a man forget... at least for a little while.


End file.
